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Which Asian language sounds the best? (sound files linked)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLmGzjGKyGM&feature=related
Which Asian language sounds the best? Korean and Japanese sounds the coolest. Malay and Indonesian sounds similar to some European languages. Tagalog sounds very hilarious but these are just my personal opinions.
>>Malay and Indonesian sounds similar to some European languages.
Which ones?
My favorites in the video are:
1) Thai - It sounds elegant and soft. 2) Lao - Sounds elegant like Thai without being too soft. 3) Japanese - I like that vowels are sounded out often separately. And words are just catchy. Ikimasu! 4) Cantonese - As a HK martial arts film fan, I have to include it! I grew up with the language in a way. My least favorites are: 1) Mandarin Chinese - It sounds so aggressive and the tones are not friendly to my ears. The constant "sh" sounds are grating. 2) Tamil & Hindi - I'm not much of a fan of Indian languages in general. 3) Vietnamese - Too gutteral and quick. Take your time...
<<Tagalog sounds very hilarious but these are just my personal opinions.>>
That's because, unlike the other samples, the Tagalog one is not a serious news story (the story is outlandish!) and the person speaking is speaking in a "salitang kalye" [street slang] sort of way.) Whoever created the video should've used a serious news clip for a fairer comparison. But anyway, I liked the Mongolian, Japanese, and Thai samples; didn't like the Mandarin, Teochew ones, but I'm pretty sure it's because of the speakers' voices rather than the languages themselves.
>>Whoever created the video should've used a serious news clip
The language used in news is sometimes quite different sounding from ordinary, everyday language.
one particular nationalistic asshole would definitely say my language, chinese.
I have no personal opinion. But I know that Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Indonesian have all been subject to ridicule to different extent, even though almost no one in Hong Kong knows the language - of course, the domestic helpers know their native languages better than everyone, but in such a place with strong social stereotypes... well, I think you can get my point why that is so. So, the simple but prejudiced view is to lump them (southeast Asian) all as guttural, always tongue rolling (r), stupid languages, and some are famous for being like distorted Cantonese, such as Vietnamese. In Cantonese, we have a term called "gi li gu lu" (hard g), to refer to all kinds of unintelligible speech (in any language) AND, stereotypically, such languages in much of Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, etc. In stark contrast, quite a few a European languages, the major ones, while some do sound guttural to us as well (German, Dutch), generally they have the reputation for being grand, elegant, high-class (or even stilted or stylish, depending on what kind of a person the learner is, as what others think)..... But this is NOT absolute. Russian is associated to Russia, and also to, you know, social problems in Russia. So, Russian won't be judged just like Swedish or Dutch, which are supposedly associated with a small population but also a small and peaceful country... But well, reality is reality. I don't intend any offence, but rather just my not so humble opinion, but no matter who I am, perhaps unless I have VERY important connections, otherwise I wouldn't want to end up spending a few years on a language that is hardly of any "utility". Depending on what you think, there does exist, I think, some absolute differences between cultures. Every culture is a culture, a worthwhile one, per se, but in reality some are indeed more important and worthwhile than others. So, enough said, Asian languages aren't even very popular in Hong Kong. We hardly know other Asian languages other than our(s). Most of us are for European ones.
[Very subjective post follows]
My personal favourites are Korean and Wu (Shanghainese). Both have that harsh yet melodic quality which makes them ideal for both a heated argument and a love poem. In the wrong mouths, Mandarin and Cantonese can sound absolutely horrific. It takes quite a lot of control and training to reduce the sing-songy harshness of Mandarin or the aggressive intonation of Cantonese. Those are my native languages, by the way =p Japanese is pleasant but in some voices, it can sound a bit flat. Hakka, Teochow and Khmer have almost no redeeming qualities, I'm afraid >_<
IF YOU COULD UPLOAD A POEM SAID IN DIFFERENT ASIAN LANGUAGES, THAT WOULD BE BEST SUITED FOR IMPARTIAL ANALYSIS, I THINK.
If you are Chinese or using the alphabet system similar to Chinese, I think that the Vietnamese is better for you, if not you can learn whichever of them. I'm Vietnamese, to be honest I think Thai, Lao, Khmer sounds like puny, I don't criticize. I'm learning Thai and recognize that the Thai grammar is pretty similar to the Viet grammar, so I can learn it easily but a bit hard about writing.
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